ID theft protection is no longer just about the printed materials you have scattered around the house. Now you have to worry about everything that is stored on your computer, too.

Millions of Americans were victims in the last 12 months. Most of them had entered personal information into their PCs without a second thought.

They spent an average of $1200 each to fix their problems according to the Federal Trade Commission. In addition to the cash, they spent over 100 hours. Many people feel that the time spent was even more of a loss than the money.

A lot of people think that installing anti-phishing and anti-viral programs is enough. Those things do help protect your PC, but they do not protect your identity.

Cleaning your surf history on a regular basis is a good idea. Otherwise, anyone that walks into your home could see where you have been.

PC Cop is the best way to protect the personal information that is hidden on your computer. Every time you ever entered your credit card number, address, social security number or anything else sensitive it was recorded on your hard drive and in just minutes any hacker online or person with access to your pc for a few minutes can retrieve your person information.

If you have recently been doing some online banking, they could transfer the funds into their own account. It is particularly easy for them to do when you have your browser save your passwords for a website.

But, even if you tell the browser to “never” save a password for a sensitive site, the passwords are still stored on your PC. In order to have “real” ID theft protection, you need to encrypt this kind of information.

PC Cop is a software program that can help. It allows you to scan your computer and find personal information that you might not realize is there. Once the info is found, you have the option to delete it, password protect it or encrypt it. It will even help you generate passwords that baffle the best hackers.

After you install PC Cop, your ID theft protection is almost complete. There are only a few more things to do.

First, you want to create a secure user name and password to log onto your PC. You do not want someone to be able to get in easily.

The rest is simply a matter of disposing of documents properly. Any mail that you receive should be checked for personal information before you throw it away.

Things that a thief can use to steal your identity include social security, driver’s license and credit card numbers. Once they have one or more of those numbers, they can ruin your credit rating or worse.